Aubrey Plaza was once ordered to masturbate in front of “a bunch of old men,” she said.
The A-lister was still a supporting character actor when she was cast as Brandy Klark in “The To Do List” (2013). Plaza described approaching director Maggie Carey about a scene described as “Brandy masturbates,” asking what she should do.
Plaza says Carey told her: “Masturbate, like it says in the script.”
The actor recounted the experience during a 2013 interview with Conan O’Brien that only recently resurfaced, shocking YouTube viewers. Plaza, who was still on “Parks and Recreation” at the time, said she “envisioned a nice scene where you see my hand slowly go out of frame.”
“That’s what I thought,” she told O’Brien at the time. “That’s what I thought I was going into. But then when I showed up, the camera was mounted on the ceiling, I was in my underwear and a Clinton T-shirt and there were a bunch of old men smoking. You know, the crew guys.”
“They weren’t smoking, but, my memory … and then I went and touched myself,” Plaza continued through laughter before turning more serious. “I thought I was doing one thing and then, when I showed up, it was a whole different thing; it was a full-body shot.”
Todd Williamson/Invision/Associated Press
The film itself concerned a studious high school graduate who endeavors to gain sexual experience before heading to college in 1993. Carey, who worked with Plaza when both were still unknown talents, told Vulture in 2013 that the film was close to her heart.
“It’s pure fiction, but that point of view of Brandy Klark is something that I know very well,” she told Vulture, “being that I graduated high school in 1993 in Boise, Idaho … I feel like I was very accomplished but still totally boy crazy and also not getting anywhere with the boys.”
While Plaza laughed about her experience back when she did her interview with O’Brien, others are less amused today.
“This would never fly in 2022,” one viewer commented on YouTube. “An actor being like ‘so what do I do’ and the director is like ‘go touch yourself on camera’. Without any kind of notice or warning that this is what they want to see? This would get that director cancelled.”
Asked about Plaza’s role in “The To-Do List,” Carey told Vulture in 2013 that “when she read the script, she liked it.” Carey ultimately went on to direct episodes of major television shows like “Silicon Valley,” “Barry” and Brooklyn Nine-Nine” — and has always praised Plaza’s work.
“She was so brave,” Carey told ScreenSlam in 2014. “She was game for everything, you know, which was fun. And she had no problem putting herself in these very awkward situations. But, you know, it’s played for comedy and she just nailed it.”
“It was just so fun to work with her,” Carey continued. “She’s very gutsy.”